"I promise to hold in high esteem, our heritage won for us through the blood and toil of our forefathers".

As we celebrate this wonderful milestone in our nation's history, I wish we can all as citizens rethink through the fifth (5th) line in our national pledge and act accordingly.

If indeed our great forefathers toiled with their blood and won some rich heritages for us, then it behoves on us to either emulate their footprints or go beyond the bar they raised. But sometimes you ask yourself where has our sense and spirit of patriotism ran to? Has the patriotism diminished or faded out completely? The more I ask the less I know.

If as citizens we can not toil with our bloods to save the future of our great nation, then we should not dismantle the great successes and heritage we came to meet. Let us put our personal aggrandizements behind us by putting the nation first. (Ghana first) I will dwell on few points of which in my own view are hindrances to our progress as a nation, these are my personal views or opinions, readers are advised not to attach any emotional sentiments whiles reading.

CORRUPTION:

Corruption has been part of us since creation, but I believe with prudent and effective measures we can curb corruption if not dealing away with it outright. The irony of it is that, those who do not engage in it directly accommodate it. Professor Patrice Lumumba could not have said it better than "our level of tolerance for corruption is amazing"

I was born in the late 80's and did not see live how people were shot and killed because of perceived corruption but with the help of Hansard I am privy to some vital information. I sometimes read some old reports on how people were shot and killed for engaging in "corruption" and I sometimes conclude that, "people were shot for less" looking at what our public officials are doing currently. Shockingly, the children of the darkness (corruption practitioners) appear more organized than the children of light (anti corruption practitioners)

People who engage in corruption are always ready to kill to get rid of any impediments on their way to "filthy success" so why can't we also be ready to get rid of them in order for our nation to progress?

Anytime corruption is mentioned, the whole notion behind it is  "politicians politicians politicians!"

Even though I share similar views on that, I still believe that our public and civil servants who are trained professionals are more corrupt than the politicians. The politician only come to office or power for a maximum of 8 years (in Ghana so far) and meet these trained professionals on various fields of governance. These professionals have been working in these ministries for decades and work with every government that comes to office. They then hide behind the political heads in their ministries and engage in some corrupt acts. It will surprise you to know that, they will sometimes give the political head there, the lacuna in the ministry and how best they can capitalize on the said lacuna. But when finally their actions are brought to the light by the help of few anti corruption agents in there, the professional is left of the hook and the politician's head is put on the table to be chopped. Even the corrupt acknowledges that, corruption is a bad thing and yet will engage in it. Considering the negative impacts of corruption on a developing nation like Ghana, I was so much excited to hear the finance minister say in the budget statement that, the NPP government will pass a bill to make corruption a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Another good sign of curbing corruption since it therefore becomes a crime against the state but my unanswered question is, does it become a first degree felony or a second degree ? The lawyers may offer me some help here. Before I conclude on the corruption aspect, I wish to make a few suggestions on how to deal with corruption in Ghana, I would be grateful if the RIGHT TO INFORMATION BILL materialized as well as the WHISTLEBLOWER ACT. these two laws would go a long way to compliment the misdemeanor to felony act which will in the end deter people from engaging in corrupt practices.

SANITATION:

Cleanliness they say is next to godliness, as we celebrate 60 years of independence, I will admonish all and sundry to be sanitation sensitive. Let us avoid unwarranted littering along the streets which finally finds its destination into our gutters and eventually leads to chocking the gutters as well as blocking the water ways whenever it rains. This little actions by us causes lots of death in our nation ranging from mosquito breeding leading to malaria, unhealthy environment leading to cholera, flooding (June 3, 2015) and many more examples. This is what parato classified as 80/20 phenomenon. That is, 80% of our problems are caused by just 20% of our actions. Let us use this phenomenon as a guide and work towards achieving a positive impact for the generations unborn. Let us be generational thinkers so that, those with no hope will become hopeful, people with no vision will become purposeful, lazy people will become industrious all in the voice of Dr. Mensah Otabil.

Another distasteful aspect of poor sanitation system is that, it drains lots of cash from governments coffers since the government will have to budget huge sums of monies to dealing with poor sanitation practices which was caused by our actions and inactions. I think moving forward such "nuisance cost" must be avoided.#nuisancecostabolished.  We can not keep on throwing monies in the waste bin as a nation. An average 60 year old man knows his left from his right, and as a matter of fact, 60 years of independence is more than enough for us to grow in maturity.

If we are able to curb these two points raised Supra, I am with the hope that Ghana will be a better place to live. I wish to reframe H.E. Nana Addo's statement made during the heat of the campaign that, "God did not put us on this rich land to be poor, but it is bad leaderships that has made us poor" and also say that, God did not put us on this rich land to be poor, but it is our actions and inactions that has made us poor.

I conclude as I began, "I promise to hold in high esteem our heritage won for us, through the blood and toil of our forefathers". Let us move forward in unism with the highest level of patriotism, discipline and self respect.

Ayekoo Ghana

Ghana must work again

Happy birthday Ghana

KWAME-POKU ADU-GYAMFI

F18/5, CANTONMENTS ACCRA-GHANA

MARCH 8, 2017